Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NFTs are digital assets exploding in popularity and value right now.</li><li><keyword id="3411184" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="David-Pakman">David Pakman</keyword> is a VC backing <keyword id="10881324" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nba-top-shot">NBA Top Shot</keyword>, one of the most successful mainstream NFTs.</li><li>Pakman says fans of IP like Star Wars are built-in <keyword id="4668945" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="nft">NFT</keyword> customers.</li></ul><p>Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have jumped into the mainstream recently.</p><p>NFTs are digital assets that have been around since 2017, and in 2020 they became a $250 million market. Creators are already realizing the potential to make millions in the relatively new space. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/grimes-nft-art-warnymph-sells-for-millions-20-minutes-2021-3">Grimes</a> sold her digital collection for $5.8 million in a 20-minute auction. A Miami art collector sold a 10-second video for <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/retail-trading-nfts/insight-how-a-10-second-video-clip-sold-for-6-6-million-idUKL8N2KV6X9">$6.6 million.</a> </p><p>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nba-top-shot-virtual-highlights-for-sale-moments-blockchain-explained-2021-2">NBA Top Shot</a> online marketplace has done over <a href="https://cryptoslam.io/">$65 million</a> in sales in just the last week.</p><p>Venture capitalist <a href="http://businessinsider.com/nfts-david-pakman-vc-nba-top-shot-predictions-crypto-assets-2021-3">David Pakman</a> is a partner at <a href="https://www.venrock.com/teammember/david-pakman/">Venrock,</a> an investor in the company behind NBA Top Shot. Pakman told Insider that consumers should expect to see other brands selling crypto-collectibles too. </p><p><em><strong>Read more: </strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nft-startups-non-fungible-tokens-the-art-world-2021-3">Here are 4 NFT startups transforming the way we buy art and sports memorabilia</a></em></p><p>"I'm sure you'll see Star Wars, Harry Potter, all super popular global IP," will eventually get into digital collectibles. "Those <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/atari-centipede-gaming-auction-with-cryptocurrency-2021-2">brands</a> have touched hundreds of millions of people" he notes, and as long as they have internet access they're all potential customers. </p><p>So far this is already starting to come true. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/taco-bell-potatoes-return-celebrated-with-nft-crypto-collectibles-2021-3">Taco Bell</a> just became the first fast-food restaurant with NFTs, and several athletes including <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/12/patrick-mahomes-to-sell-nft-trading-cards.html">Patrick Mahomes</a> and <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/rob-gronkowski-capitalizes-on-nba-top-shot-craze-launches-collection-of-exclusive-nft-cards-213812319.html">Rob Gronkowski</a> have jumped in too, and <a href="https://collectible.sweet.io/series/53">Lil Pump</a> and <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/kings-of-leon-when-you-see-yourself-album-nft-crypto-1135192/">Kings of Leon</a> are bringing NFTs into the music world.</p><p>For fans, <a href="http://businessinsider.com/nfts-david-pakman-vc-nba-top-shot-predictions-crypto-assets-2021-3">digital collectibles</a> can have more staying power than physical objects like a plush toy or trading cards. Because NFTs are software, they can change and improve, Pakman says. Pieces can evolve and change based on factors like who the owner is and where they're located. </p><p>Right now, NFT owners are limited to buying, selling, and displaying their collectibles, but as more companies enter the space and build new technology, their utility will increase, Pakman says.</p><p>"You could have hundreds or thousands of other companies creating experiences around a collectible," for example, he says there are up to 50 games in development right now that would use NBA Top Shots moments.</p><p>Creating digital collectibles is a smart money decision, too. Digital collectibles, compared to analog items, are software, so the creator can continue to make money as it is resold.</p><p>"In the physical world, you get a percent of revenue when the plush is sold the first time, but if it goes up in value and people sell it at a flea market, you don't get anything on downstream sales," Pakman said as an example. </p><p>Creating digital scarcity like NFTs then becomes a compelling business model to giant companies like Disney, so more of them will create in the space. Creating an ongoing economic relationship, rather than a one-time sale, is very interesting to companies with popular brands.</p><p>"You'll get paid forever," as Pakman puts it.</p>

Why every major entertainment company will get into NFTs, according to the VC behind NBA Top Shot

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NFTs are digital assets exploding in popularity and value right now.</li><li>David Pakman is a VC backing <keyword id="10881324" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nba-top-shot">NBA Top Shot</keyword>, one of the most successful mainstream NFTs.</li><li>Pakman says the popularity will continue growing and major brands will create their own.</li></ul><p>Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have jumped into the mainstream recently.</p><p>NFTs are digital assets that have been around since 2017, and in 2020 they became a $250 million market. Creators are already realizing the potential to make millions in the relatively new space. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/grimes-nft-art-warnymph-sells-for-millions-20-minutes-2021-3">Grimes</a> sold her digital collection for $5.8 million in a 20-minute auction. A Miami art collector sold a 10-second video for <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/retail-trading-nfts/insight-how-a-10-second-video-clip-sold-for-6-6-million-idUKL8N2KV6X9">$6.6 million.</a> The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nba-top-shot-virtual-highlights-for-sale-moments-blockchain-explained-2021-2">NBA Top Shot</a> online marketplace has done over <a href="https://cryptoslam.io/">$65 million</a> in sales in just the last week.</p><p>Venture capitalist David Pakman is a partner at <a href="https://www.venrock.com/teammember/david-pakman/">Venrock,</a> an investor in the company behind <keyword id="6361805" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="NBA">NBA</keyword> Top Shot. He shared three trends he sees coming up in the <keyword id="2721952" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto">crypto</keyword> world with Insider in a phone call.</p><h3>NFTs are still tiny, but they're poised to blow up</h3><p>Based on the hype over the last few weeks, it seems as if everyone is in the <keyword id="4668945" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="nft">NFT</keyword> game somehow, but that isn't the case at all, Pakman says. When he spoke to Insider on Wednesday, about 90,000 unique buyers had purchased moments on NBA Top Shot - just a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of millions of NBA fans around the world. With less than 1% market penetration, there's "probably a lot of running room here," Pakman said.</p><p>Of those buyers, 60 to 70% are new to the crypto world, so Top Shot is actually introducing them to NFTs as a concept.</p><p>Top Shot and NFTs are "going to grow to be so much bigger than they are right now," Pakman said. Top Shot was launched in October, but it's still in beta. There's been "no marketing, it's just been organic."</p><p>"Some NBA players have tweeted about it," he said about Top Shot's massive growth. "We're not trying to create additional demand right now."</p><div type="image" title="NBA Top Shot_Press Collectibles_" height="1080" width="1440" msid="81366858" hostid="261"></div><h3>Expect digital collectibles from Star Wars, Harry Potter, and other pop culture icons</h3><p>The NBA's massive early success in early NFTs is probably just a peek at what we're going to see more of, Pakman says.</p><p>"I'm sure you'll see Star Wars, Harry Potter, all super popular global IP," will eventually get into digital collectibles. "Those <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/atari-centipede-gaming-auction-with-cryptocurrency-2021-2">brands</a> have touched hundreds of millions of people" he notes, and as long as they have internet access they're all potential customers. </p><p>Creating digital collectibles is a smart money decision, too. Digital collectibles, compared to analog items, are software, so the creator can continue to make money as it is resold.</p><p>"In the physical world, you get a percent of revenue when the plush is sold the first time, but if it goes up in value and people sell it at a flea market, you don't get anything on downstream sales," Pakman said as an example. </p><p>Creating digital scarcity like NFTs then becomes a compelling business model to giant companies like Disney, so more of them will create in the space. Creating an ongoing economic relationship, rather than a one-time sale, is very interesting to companies with popular brands.</p><p>"You'll get paid forever," as Pakman puts it.</p><h3>Gen Z is ready to embrace NFTs</h3><p>Gen Z - widely considered the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/retail-courts-gen-z-spending-power-over-140-billion-2020-1">first digital generation</a>, having grown up using the internet - has over <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/retail-courts-gen-z-spending-power-over-140-billion-2020-1">$140 billion</a> in spending power already. This ease and willingness to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/generation-z-e-commerce-shopping-2014-9">buy things online</a> can translate into adopting NFTs. They are also used to fast, liquid, global markets for nearly anything - which is exactly what makes NFTs different from analog collectibles.</p><p>While <keyword id="6358815" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech">tech</keyword>nology like NFTs might have been limited to people in tech niches in previous generations, "this is starting with the normals," in Gen Z, Pakman says.</p>

Crypto collectibles are set to explode, says NBA Top Shot investor. Here are 3 trends to watch.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="131257" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Taco-Bell">Taco Bell</keyword> launched a collection of <keyword id="10871093" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto-art">crypto art</keyword> for $1 each, and they sold out in 30 minutes.</li><li>Some pieces have already resold for over $3,000.</li><li>NFTs are digital assets that make up a $250 million market.</li></ul><p>Taco Bell just became the first <keyword id="41941" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="fast-food">fast food</keyword> chain to jump into the <a href="https://rarible.com/tacobell?tab=created">NFT trend</a> with five versions of digital art, selling five copies of each. Taco Bell is calling them "NFTacoBells."</p><p>NFTs are digital assets that have been around since 2017, and in 2020 they became a $250 million market. Creators are already realizing the potential to make millions in the relatively new space. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/grimes-nft-art-warnymph-sells-for-millions-20-minutes-2021-3">Grimes</a> sold her digital collection for $5.8 million in a 20-minute auction. A Miami art collector sold a 10-second video for <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/retail-trading-nfts/insight-how-a-10-second-video-clip-sold-for-6-6-million-idUKL8N2KV6X9">$6.6 million.</a> The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nba-top-shot-virtual-highlights-for-sale-moments-blockchain-explained-2021-2">NBA Top Shot</a> online marketplace has done over <a href="https://cryptoslam.io/">$65 million</a> in sales in just the last week.</p><p>Taco Bell's 25 total pieces of crypto-art sold in under 30 minutes on Sunday on the platform <a href="https://rarible.com/tacobell?tab=created">Rarible</a>, the company told Insider. The five types were each related to Taco Bell's menu in some way, and started out priced at $1 each. The <a href="https://rarible.com/token/0xd07dc4262bcdbf85190c01c996b4c06a461d2430:236715:0x1a7ef4089fc9630299ac3d54c478e365d3876650">"Ever-Crunching Tacos"</a> piece received the highest bid of 2 WETH, or about $3,646, according to <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/weth">CoinGecko.</a> One of the pieces is for sale now for 10 ETH, or $18,365.25.</p><div type="image" title="Taco Bell NFT" height="736" width="982" msid="81421450" hostid="261"></div><p>Even with the low initial price of a dollar, the pieces can generate significant money for Taco Bell, which gets 0.01% in each subsequent sale. Taco Bell says all profits will go towards its Live Mas scholarship.</p><p>Another piece in the collection, <a href="https://rarible.com/token/0xd07dc4262bcdbf85190c01c996b4c06a461d2430:236754:0x9bd97bce31046233cbd65076dbfe421a0132f74f">"Tato Dimensions,"</a> shows a 43-second clip of what looks like a spicy potato soft taco. The timing of these NFTs fits nicely with the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/taco-bell-potatoes-return-menu-march-after-protest-2021-1">return of potatoes</a> to Taco Bell's menu on March 11 after backlash from furious customers.</p><div type="image" title="Taco Bell NFT" height="762" width="1016" msid="81421451" hostid="261"></div><p>"Right now, we are in the experimentation phase of the market, so I would expect to see lots of different experiments from musical and visual artists, brands, <keyword id="6358815" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech">tech</keyword> companies, media companies, and creators of all stripes. Sometimes brands can be rewarded for embracing emerging consumer trends earlier than their peer group, so kudos to Taco Bell" <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nfts-david-pakman-vc-nba-top-shot-predictions-crypto-assets-2021-3">Venture capitalist David Pakman</a>, an investor in NBA Top Shot, told Insider in an email.</p><p>"That said, in the long run, I expect that there will be way more supply of NFTs than there is demand for them, and the cream will rise to the top," Pakman said. </p><p>Taco Bell "may drop a second one in the future" the brand hinted.</p>

Taco Bell celebrated the return of potatoes to its menu with taco NFTs that sold out in minutes. Now, they're reselling for thousands of dollars.

<p></p>
<p>David Pakman co-created Apple's Music Group and worked for three digital music start-ups before finding his real calling as a venture capitalist.</p>
<p>Now he's a partner at Venrock and has invested in companies like Klout, Dstillery and even Apple. But his early entrepreneur experiences shaped those ventures and help him stand out as a star investor in a competitive field.</p>
<p>Pakman sat down with <a href="https://www.onewire.com/">OneWire CEO Skiddy von Stade</a> and gave these three tips on how to best to source deals as a VC based on all he's seen in his career (so quite a bit):</p>
<h3>(1) Develop an area of expertise</h3>
<p>These days investors are chomping at the bit to fund start-up digital media companies - "and everyone's money's just as green," Pakman said.</p>
<p>So Venrock capitalists strive to add more than just capital to their ventures.</p>
<p>"Venrock's been around for more than 40 years and has invested in many of the world's most incredible companies," Pakman said. "The belief is that we've seen this show before and we can offer some guidance to an entrepreneur."</p>
<h3>(2) Get some experience as an entrepreneur</h3>
<p>Not only does Venrock have that kind of expertise, but Pakman does too.</p>
<p>"I've started and ran companies, so I've seen that grind," he said.</p>
<p>Pakman said new entrepreneurs tend to be short-sighted and focused on the next few weeks or months ahead. So he aims to provide longer-term wisdom to his partners.</p>
<p>"I try to help entrepreneurs see around corners," he said.</p>
<h3>(3) Understand and share your partners' vision - because you're going in for the long haul</h3>
<p>Pakman said entrepreneurs must feel that you see eye to eye with them, sense the same macro trends taking place, and share a long-term vision.</p>
<p>It can take years to get a start-up company where you want it to go.</p>
<p>"So you have to be aligned with the same super long-term vision as an entrepreneur, and I think that's another way to differentiate," he said.</p>
<p><span>Watch the full OneWire interview above and </span><a href="https://www.onewire.com/videos" target="_blank">subscribe to the series</a><span> to get new interviews as soon as they are posted.</span><span><br><br /></br></span></p>

One Venrock Partner's Three Keys To Being A Killer Investor

<p></p>
<p>Venrock partner David Pakman sat down to a wide-ranging interview with <a href="https://www.onewire.com/">OneWire CEO Skiddy von Stade</a>, and there was one big take way towards the end - get an engineering degree.</p>
<p>"We still prefer [hiring] people who are engineers. People with hardware/software background, I think, have a great advantage in terms of finding companies and evaluating the strength of the technology..." said Pakman.</p>
<p>He said when he and his partners sit down to think who they should add to their team - a team that has invested in companies like <span>Klout, Dstillery and </span><span>Dollar Shave Club - the want people who actually get the technology behind the business.</span></p>
<p><span>Another thing Pakman looks at is a potential hire's networks. Young people are going out and starting companies like never before, and Venrock wants to hire people who know what their peers are doing.<span><br /></span></span></p>
<p><span><span>"Hyper connected young people with great networks," he called them.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>Watch the full OneWire interview above and </span><a href="https://www.onewire.com/videos" target="_blank">subscribe to the series</a><span> to get new interviews as soon as they are posted.</span></span></span></p>
<p> </p>

To This Venture Capitalist, One Degree Rules Above All

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Steve Castor, Republican staff attorney for the House Oversight Committee, was widely mocked for his&#xa0; confusing questioning during a hearing of&#xa0;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-impeachment-hearings-schedule-how-to-watch-live-updates-2019-11">impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump</a>.&#xa0;</li><li>Castor on Wednesday questioned <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-taylor-impeachment-hearing-trump-foreign-aid-personal-gain-2019-11">the top US diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/george-kent-accuses-rudy-giuliani-infecting-ukraine-impeachment-hearing-2019-11">deputy assistant secretary of state George Kent,</a> and became the butt of internet jokes for his unfocused line of inquiry.</li><li>The GOP lawyer was panned by people who said he <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1194676868500336640">alluded to conspiracy theories</a>, tried to get Taylor <a href="https://twitter.com/HayesBrown/status/1194677017704378368">to say Trump thought Ukrainians were "out to get him"</a>, and blundered a question during the hearing,&#xa0;</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>A Republican staff attorney for the House Oversight Committee was the butt of internet jokes on Wednesday over confusing line of questioning during a hearing for the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-impeachment-hearings-schedule-how-to-watch-live-updates-2019-11">impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump</a>.</p><p>Attorney Steve Castor, the House Intelligence Committee Counsel for the minority, asked <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-taylor-impeachment-hearing-trump-foreign-aid-personal-gain-2019-11">the top US diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/george-kent-accuses-rudy-giuliani-infecting-ukraine-impeachment-hearing-2019-11">Deputy Assistant Secretary of State&#xa0;George Kent </a>questions on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-impeachment-public-hearing-gop-senators-claim-busy-2019-11">behalf of the GOP</a> as part of the hearing, but many people didn't understand his game plan.</p><p>People on social media noticed the dizzying nature of Castor's questioning, saying it was unclear what he was ultimately trying to do.&#xa0;</p><p>They said that while Castor was questioning Taylor, he <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1194676868500336640">alluded to conspiracy theories</a>, tried to get Taylor <a href="https://twitter.com/HayesBrown/status/1194677017704378368">to say Trump thought Ukrainians were "out to get him"</a> during the 2016 election, and <a href="https://twitter.com/GarrettHaake/status/1194676925723283457">blundered a questioned</a> he didn't know the answer to.</p><p>Many people made jokes about his struggles on Twitter:</p><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-taylor-impeachment-hearing-trump-foreign-aid-personal-gain-2019-11" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">Longtime diplomat Bill Taylor testifies that he has never seen a US president make foreign aid a condition of their personal or political interests</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-taylor-voice-walter-cronkite-trump-impeachment-hearing-2019-11" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">People are comparing Ambassador Bill Taylor's voice to Walter Cronkite's as he testifies in the Trump impeachment hearing</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-impeachment-hearings-schedule-how-to-watch-live-updates-2019-11" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link"> LIVE: Bill Taylor and George Kent's vivid testimony is blowing up Trump's defense in the Ukraine scandal. Follow our coverage here.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-taylor-reveals-call-trump-gordon-sondland-impeachment-hearing-2019-11" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">Top US diplomat Bill Taylor revealed details of a previously unknown phone call between Trump and Gordon Sondland in his bombshell impeachment hearing testimony</a></li></ul><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div>

GOP lawyer's confusing questioning during the Trump impeachment hearing sent the internet into a tizzy

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Every Tuesday, Vanessa and Veronica Merrell spend an hour livestreaming themselves singing covers of their favorite songs or playing charades. But the 18-year-old sisters aren't doing this on Periscope or Meerkat.</span></p><p>Instead, they're using <a href="http://www.younow.com/">YouNow</a>, a livestreaming mobile app and website teens are obsessed with.</p><p>YouNow founder Adi Sideman says 70% of YouNow's users are under the age of 24, and that the platform has 100 million user sessions a month, and about 150,000 broadcasts daily. For comparison, Twitter announced Tuesday <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/28/8510841/periscope-1-million-users-in-first-10-days">that its livestreaming app Periscope hit 1 million users in its first 10 days.</a></p><p>The Merrell twins found out about YouNow through one of their favorite YouTubers, the Harries Twins.</p><p>"We were absolutely in love with the Harries Twins - they would always do YouNows," Veronica tells Business Insider.</p><p>"A lot of our subscribers and viewers wanted a way to talk to us and they told us to do YouNow so we could interact with them," Veronica said. "And we were just like, why not? It's a cool way to interact with our subscribers and viewers."</p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The interaction between performers and their audiences is what sets YouNow apart from other buzzy livestreaming services like Periscope or Meerkat. </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The average mobile session length on YouNow is about 6 minutes. The average mobile broadcast length is about 18 minutes.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Each YouNow broadcast has two main features: a window where the broadcaster livestreams himself or herself, and a chat window, where users interact with broadcasters. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">YouNow lets its users buy into a currency called Bars. It lets users buy virtual goods - 50 thumbs up, for example - that they can give to their favorite broadcaster to help them trend. They can also pay to send messages to YouNowers that get sent to the top of the chat window, so both the YouNower and the rest of the viewers see it. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">What makes a great YouNower or a great live broadcaster is the ability to interact in almost a performance setting with the audience live and feeling very comfortable," Sideman says. "It's not trivial to do. And it's not for everyone. But if you are very good with people and if you are not very inhibited, then chances are you would be pretty good on YouNow."</span></p><p>Sideman is no stranger to the user-generated media broadcast on YouNow every second of every day - in fact, he basically went to school for it, majoring in filmmaking and then going to grad school for interactive telecommunications.</p><p>"I<span>n my mind, it's always been a holy grail to allow users to create media," Sideman says. "And the more real time the technologies became,  the more it became clear that live is going to be really huge."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Sideman thinks this is the right time for an app like YouNow because people have never been more comfortable around video, and people are trying to make a name for themselves online.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The collision of these trends led Sideman to start YouNow in 2011.</span></p><p>If you still can't quite wrap your head around what YouNow is, Sideman puts it best:</p><p>"It's a global platform for self expression," he said. "It's like YouTube, but live. The secret sauce is that it's all about the audience. And the audience feels like even though it's a one-to-many, it feels like a one-to-one interaction." </p><p>When you use YouNow's platform, you can see the top trending broadcasters, as well as which of your friends are online and a number of trending tags, including things like #dance, #truthordare, and #advice.</p><p>The theory behind YouNow is that people crave social interaction in every form, and YouNow is the perfect platform for that. Teens, a demographic with a lot of time on their hands, as suggested by the ever-popular #bored hashtag on YouNow, do everything from talk to the camera, eat dinner while they talk to their community of followers, dance, and even livestream themselves sleeping (For a more thorough explainer on YouNow's fascinating #sleepingsquad, I defer to <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/im-addicted-to-watching-teens-sleep">BuzzFeed's Katie Notopolous</a>).</p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Last year, Vine star Shawn Mendes <a href="https://twitter.com/ShawnMendes/statuses/481927026837049344">released a single on YouNow</a>. Tumblr star and Internet personality Tyler Oakley <a href="http://www.tubefilter.com/2014/04/11/tyler-oakley-trevor-project-charity-campaign-prizeo-half-million/">raised half a million dollars on crowdfunding website Prizeo for The Trevor Project</a>, a charity that raises awareness for LGBT youths at risk of suicide, and linked to his YouNow account in a sort of modern-day telethon. </span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Even parents are getting in on the broadcasting aspect too. Darrell Tousley, better known by his YouNow name Flippindad, is the parent of YouNower Flippinginja, hia son <span>Jared. With two broadcasters and two cameras in the same house, Sideman says it's like watching a reality TV show.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">We never had imagined half of these use cases," he says. "And by giving governance and control over to the community, we provide a platform upon which they can self express in ways they want." </span></p><p><span>YouNow makes money by taking a cut of users' in-app purchases every time someone buys bars to tip their favorite performers. </span></p><p><span>"It really enhances the ability to communicate," Sideman says. "I</span><span>t's a classic freemium model." </span></p><p><span>YouNow's partner program lets broadcasters make money, and Sideman says many of them report making more on YouNow than on YouTube. </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></span>For the Merrell twins, YouNow has come naturally. After being on the platform for about 9 months, the high schoolers have amassed 76,000 YouNow fans in addition to their 250,000 YouTube subscribers. While they say they do make "a good amount" of money from YouTube and YouNow alike - "the more and more viewers we get on our broadcasts the more money comes in," Vanessa says - they've never been motivated by money. The sisters genuinely love interacting with their community of fans.</p><p>"We don't just read the comments," Vanessa said. "We get to play games with our fans, we get to see where they're from. We always ask, Where are you from? Who's watching us right now? And we get answers form all over the world. It's just amazing to see all these people from around the world come together and chat with each other and just have fun." </p><p>David Pakman is a partner at venture capital firm Venrock, which led YouNow's $7 million Series B round of funding in August 2014. He says what drew him to YouNow is how inherently social it is. </p><p>"What makes YouNow so different from and more valuable than some competing livestreaming apps is that many of those are utilities used ?to broadcast, not media creation platforms rooted in social discovery," he says. "The fact that the camera faces IN as default, not out, suggests how valuable we believe conversation is to the success of this format." </p><p>The Merrells, who are currently in high school with plans to attend college in the future, say YouNow has become part of their weekly routine.</p><p>"[It's] like posting a video every Tuesday on YouTube," Vanessa says. "Our fans expect us to be there."</p><p>They livestream every Tuesday, singing covers of songs that fans request, playing games with viewers, answering their questions, and giving advice to people who want it.</p><p>"We play games like Hangman. We'll start humming a song or playing a song on guitar and they guess the song, and whoever guesses the song first gets to pick a letter for Hangman. We also do charades and trivia," Vanessa says. "Every broadcast is different."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>In addition, the twins have been cast in "Jane the Virgin," a sitcom on the CW.</p><p>"We were the evil twin stepsisters, who were very mean," Veronica says. "It was way out of our personalities! It's not who we are."</p><p>While the Merrells got that role through their agent, they say they've also gotten opportunities through YouNow and YouTube.</p><p>At the MTV Video Music Awards last year, they said, YouNow and MTV had a partnership in which YouNowers were livestreaming on the red carpet, singing covers of their favorite artists' songs so the artists could watch.</p><p>"It was a really cool experience," Veronica says. "A lot of people got to perform in front of their favorite artists."</p><p>YouNow, which has raised $11 million from Venrock and Union Square Ventures, is still growing. Sideman says in the past year the company has gone from 15 employees to 40, with plans to continue to expand.</p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"We love products heavily adopted by teens, since they predict the future of consumption, and the organic global teen adoption of YouNow is just amazing to watch," Venrock's David Pakman says. "There will be tens of millions of simultaneously broadcasters and viewers on these platforms within months."</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-power-user-hacks-apple-tricks-2015-3">5 hard-to-find iPhone tricks only power users know about</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="dzb3ZxczpW1JgYelTy6QXfo_lrpK_Xyi" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Teens are going crazy for YouNow, a livestreaming app with 100 million monthly user sessions 

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>Roseanne Barr went on a tweet storm Tuesday night after ABC canceled the "Roseanne" reboot.</strong></li><li><strong>Barr said Tuesday morning she was leaving Twitter, but continued to tweet and retweet throughout the night.</strong></li><li><strong>The retweets included right-wing Twitter pages and pundits defending her after her racist remark.</strong></li></ul><p>&#xa0;</p><p>ABC may have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/abc-cancels-roseanne-after-racist-tweet-by-its-star-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">canceled its "Roseanne" reboot</a> on Tuesday, after its star Roseanne Barr <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/roseanne-barr-tweet-racist-valerie-jarrett-clintons2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted a racist remark</a>, but that didn't stop Barr from tweeting throughout the night.</p><p>Barr's original offensive tweet compared Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, to an ape: "<span>muslim brotherhood &amp; planet of the apes had a baby=vj."</span> Jarrett is a black woman born in Iran.</p><p>Barr <a href="https://twitter.com/therealroseanne/status/1001471669641216005" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted an apology</a> Tuesday morning that said "<span>I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword> and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste."</span></p><p>But by Wednesday morning, after ABC had pulled the plug on her show, Barr's <a href="https://twitter.com/therealroseanne" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a> was littered with retweets from fans, far-right Twitter pages, and conservative pundits defending her after the remark. Barr herself <a href="https://twitter.com/therealroseanne/status/1001675404468457472" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a> "<span>losing my show is 0 compared 2 being labelled a racist over one tweet-that I regret even more" - showing a level of misunderstanding of why her tweet about a black woman was deemed racist in the first place.&#xa0;</span></p><p><span>Barr retweeted the following tweets defending her remarks:</span></p><p>She replied to television and radio host David Pakman and called him a "bully," and defended her claim that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/roseanne-barr-blames-ambien-for-racist-tweet-cancelled-show-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ambien caused her racist tweet</a>.</p><p>She also referred to several people as "bigots" for calling her out.</p><p>She responded to co-star Sara Gilbert's tweet that Barr's racist remark was "abhorrent."</p><p>But then said that she understood Gilbert's position, and was just "shocked."</p><p>She also called out Wanda Sykes for quitting the show before ABC canceled it, and co-star Michael Fishman, who she said threw her under the bus.</p><p>Barr tweeted a defense of Trump, though, saying she "feels bad" for him in response to a tweet that called Gilbert "ungrateful" and "disloyal."</p><p>Barr also retweeted a claim by Fox Business anchor Trish Regan that ABC was "looking for a reason to cancel" the show because they "didn't like the fact that her conservative defense of certain things was so popular."&#xa0;</p><p>ABC executives have said that the "Roseanne" revival was actually <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/roseanne-reboot-part-of-abcs-effort-to-attract-trump-supporters-2018-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a direct result of President Trump's election</a>, and part of the network's strategy to attract conservatives. And while ratings slightly decreased since the reboot's premiere in March, it was still the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-tv-shows-of-the-year-nielsen-ratings-2018-5#1-roseanne-abc-232-million-average-viewers-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">most popular scripted show of the year</a>. For ABC to cancel it means Barr's comments finally crossed a line.&#xa0;</p><p>Barr also seemed to be deflecting attention from her own remarks with a series of retweets that called out other personalities.</p><p>Barr got into politics during her tweet storm as well, such as the controversy surrounding photos of locked-up immigrant children.</p><p>Former Obama staffer Jon Favreau <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/migrant-children-in-cages-2014-photos-explained-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accidentally attributed photos of the children to Trump's administration</a>, but the photos were actually from 2014. Favreau apologized on Twitter for the mistake.</p><p><span>That didn't stop Barr from retweeting a Breitbart article on the topic.</span></p><p>And she took part in the NFL controversy by retweeting conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.</p><p>She also retweeted numerous tweets about the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/palestinians-fire-dozens-25-bombs-at-israel-heaviest-barrage-since-2014-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Palestinian bombing of Israel</a> on Tuesday.</p><p>To cap it off, she retweeted Charlie Sheen, who joked that "Two and a Half Men" should make a comeback.</p><p>&#xa0;</p><p>&#xa0;</p><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/street-artist-creates-3d-balloons-mylar-sweden-huge-art-2018-5">How a street artist creates 3D balloons on flat walls that seem to pop out at you</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div></hr>

You Searched For "David Pakman" and got 9 results

Why every major entertainment company will get into NFTs, according to the VC behind NBA Top Shot

Mary Meisenzahl

Crypto collectibles are set to explode, says NBA Top Shot investor. Here are 3 trends to watch.

Mary Meisenzahl

Taco Bell celebrated the return of potatoes to its menu with taco NFTs that sold out in minutes. Now, they're reselling for thousands of dollars.

Mary Meisenzahl

One Venrock Partner's Three Keys To Being A Killer Investor

Portia Crowe

To This Venture Capitalist, One Degree Rules Above All

Linette Lopez

GOP lawyer's confusing questioning during the Trump impeachment hearing sent the internet into a tizzy

Kelly McLaughlin

Teens are going crazy for YouNow, a livestreaming app with 100 million monthly user sessions

Maya Kosoff

Roseanne Barr said she was sorry, but then went on a Twitter spree deflecting blame from the racist comment that got her show canceled

Travis Clark

How Controversial Startup Klout Sold For Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars

Alyson Shontell

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides